Finally Alright
by Countess of Cobert
Summary: Two unconnected one-shots from series two.
1. Chapter 1

AN: this is just a couple of unconnected follow on scenes from Series 2. This first one is set the night after the dinner where Lavinia comes back to Downton and then a Robert and Cora have a little fight. He calls her unfeeling. The second is set some time after episode 8 when she has the flu. Hope you like them.

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><p>Cora is unsurprised when Robert, upon entering the room climbs straight into bed and kisses the top of her head.<p>

"I'm sorry I was angry with you earlier. I shouldn't have said you were unfeeling, that was below the mark." Robert is relieved when she smiles at him, albeit reluctantly.

"Thank you. I'm sorry as well, in your defence it was unfeeling of me to say you didn't want grandchildren." Robert shuffles under the sheets and he's pleased when Cora does the same.

"I guess I was just upset you were pressing Sir Richard's case and seem to have forgotten Matthew, it's just-"

"It would be so much simpler if Mary married Matthew so their son could inherit Downton. I understand that, and I agree." It troubles Robert slightly that Cora should think all he cares about is Downton and not what his girls or her want. That's not really the reason he wishes Mary to marry Matthew, yes, it would be simpler but there's more to it than that, at least in his mind, obviously he's not showing it very well.

"It's not just that. I hold onto the idea of Mary and Matthew because we know she loves him and I want her if at all possible to marry because she loves the man. Marriage is so much nicer if you love your partner." Cora smiles at his little compliment and let's him press a chaste kiss to her lips. She's much relieved that he hasn't forgotten his heart and solely wants to sacrifice Mary for Downton. "And then Matthew still loves Mary and it all gets exasperating." Cora looks up sharply at his disclosure, had Matthew been speaking to Robert about such things?

"How do you know he still loves her," she ventures, "doesn't he love Lavinia?"

"Yes, in a way. But mainly Lavinia is there to protect his pride. Mary hurt him in some way before the war and he didn't want to come back here, unattached, to be hurt by her again. So, he proposed to the sweet, pretty Lavinia. He cares for Lavinia, but he doesn't love her as much as he does Mary." Cora's mind races at the facts before her, is there still hope for Mary?

"But, just because he doesn't love Lavinia, doesn't mean he loves Mary."

"If he loved Mary as I think he loved her then he will never love anyone else. Just as I wouldn't be able to love anyone as much as I love you." Her lips find his of their own accord and Robert relishes in the touch he's missed for so long, finally he thinks I might be getting Cora back. Just as he pushes his tongue against her lips trying to part them just a little wider so he may slip his tongue further into her mouth, she pulls away. He tries to mask his disappointment.

"Poor Lavinia, in love with a man who can give her no children and can never fully love her, because he loves another." Robert senses an opportunity to have her back in his arms.

"I think she'll be alright. We married with you willing to give up everything and head over heels in love while I only was only sure I liked you. And look how that turned out." She smiles as his hand draws circles on her arm, she lays her head on his chest, quite exhausted.

"I don't remember you being violently in love with another woman though."

"Did I never tell you about Charlotte?" Robert grins as she sits bolt upright and stares at him. Cora swats him on the arm when she sees his face and realises he was just winding her up.

"Don't tease me about something so serious. You scared me."

"I'm sorry, shall I make it better?" Before she can answer she feels his hands grab her waist and pull her atop him, his mouth already moving in hungry kisses over hers. She very almost loses herself in his embrace, but her tiredness catches up with her and she pulls away.

"I'm sorry darling, not tonight. I'm just too tired." She doesn't miss the look of disappointment on Robert's face and she vows to herself she'll make up for it later in the week. No doubt he's a little needy, it has been some time since they'd made love. She tries to banish these thought from her mind as she turns out the light, she needs to sleep.


	2. Chapter 2

Cora sits, gazing into space, she holds her book but she can't begin to focus on it. Thoughts of the last hour swimming freshly in her mind. Tears fill her eyes at the thought of Mary being right and she blinks them quickly away as the doorknob forewarning Robert's presence turns.

He looks anxiously at Cora as he enters the room, it had worried him when Mary had said she'd left to go to bed early, he hoped the flu wasn't making a reappearance, he'd lived in dread of that the whole week she'd been better. But as he watches her, he sees she is perfectly fine, no traces of recent sickness except the paleness of her usually sparkling eyes, she's far away, he muses and by the expression on her face, thinking of something she'd rather forget.

"Cora, what is it?"

"Nothing, it doesn't matter." It brings hope to her heart that he has noticed she is not quite herself that surely proves Mary to be incorrect? But the doubt filters back into her mind as she turns her back to him. Their marriage had been rocky for quite some months, what if Mary was right and he had found someone else. "It's just...Mary said something and then...then I thought about it and it upset me...that she may have been right...I...never mind." Robert stares at her back unsure whether to press her, when he remembers how distant their marriage has been recently, both keeping secrets form the other, besides she was always there for him and it was his turn to be there for her, he owed her that, just that if nothing else, after what he'd nearly done with that maid.

"What did Mary say?" Cora lays firm where she lays, not wanting to sound stupid by bringing up such a topic. Robert loves her, he almost always has. But her mind begins to doubt again as the last few, distant, cold months of their marriage flash in her mind. Unromantic couplings, Robert's heavy moans as he climaxed inside her without her body being so much as close. She wanted that to change, she needed that to change.

"After dinner, when she asked where you were and I said you were writing a letter she started joking around, saying...I'm just being stupid, it's ridiculous." Robert reaches forward and slowly rubs her shoulder, when was the last time he'd done anything that loving to her?

"It was obviously not too ridiculous, it's upset you."

"She, she joked that it must be a rather long letter and seeing as you weren't writing to me. Then...then...it must be for some...some mis-mistress you've got hidden away somewhere." Cora thankfully doesn't see Robert's shoulders slouch and his eyes fill with tears, her back is still to him. How close I was, he muses, to such a dreadful fate as that. "Any other day I would have found it funny, but recently, well we haven't quite been ourselves I mean...when was the last time we laughed together, or teased each other...kissed..or even, I mean...I can't even remember the last time we-we-we were lovers." She whispers the last word, an innocence that she hadn't felt since her wedding night washing over her. She turns slowly to look at him and noticing his pained expression misinterprets it, although perhaps that's a good thing. "I'm sorry, I was being ridiculous."

"We were lovers, just two months before you were ill, remember?" Robert doesn't wish to remember the event, nor a fair few before that. Her cold body, barely responding to his touches, him just aroused by the mere thought of sex rather than the woman before him. But he'll do anything at this moment to justify things in his mind.

"I wasn't counting these last few months, that just been duty, to use your mother's phrase. I was thinking about the last time it was proper...I mean like we used to...always have, apart from these few months. What I'm trying to say is that I wouldn't be surprised if you'd decided to find yourself someone else, so Mary's words just-" she stops and looks at him, when he turns away she looks down. So, she takes a steading breath, there is someone else, Mary was right. He watches her as tears slip down her face. He looks at her beautiful face and hopes against hope he's about to make the right decision, he can't tell her, not yet, but he can put her out of her misery.

"There's nobody else. There never should be. I won't lie to you, I will admit for the first time in my life it crossed my mind. But, that passed, my dearest one. There's only you." His eyes dart between her eyes and her mouth and he's relieved when hers do the same. She reaches out and gently strokes the buttons of his shirt, he sighs at the touch and she smiles.

"So, we're really alright?"

"Yes." He places a hand on her waist and nudges her a little towards him. Her hand moves slowly over the skin bare above the top of his shirt. He looks at her nervous expression, and his mind sighs, this is what it's come to, she's nervous about kissing me. To settle her nerves, he can think of only one thing, to tease her. "So I have something to refer back to, when was the last time we were proper lovers?" She blushes and Robert smirks, it seems she's remembered almost the exact night.

"About eleven months ago." He inches his face towards hers and his nose rubs slowly over hers. However, she is still a little reluctant to put her lips to his, and keeps moving her lips back when he comes nearer as though their lips contain magnets. She offers a reason for her reluctance a second later: "At one point I thought you might have gone off me. I've heard variety is the key to these things." She blushes and runs a hand slowly through his hair, avoiding his eyes, she never felt she'd have such a conversation. He lifts her chin so she looks into his eyes.

"Never, do you know what the poets say about wives? They are a man's best, last gift." She smiles and she finally allows his lips to touch hers. The first kiss is chaste but when she leans back into him, he doesn't hold back and she happily opens her lips to his probing tongue, hers meets his just the other side and a small moan escapes from her throat. All it seemed, was alright.

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><p>AN: Thanks for reading. Robert's last line here was taken from the Billie Piper version of Mansfield Park by Jane Austen. It's a line that's always stuck with me and I wanted to use it.<p> 


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